


strike at the core

by gunyatta



Series: small rarespair moments [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Mild Language, hanzo is not suave but it's ok, not a joke fic, only genuine torbjorn love allowed in this house, torbjorn is slow to recognise he has a crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-17 08:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11847363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gunyatta/pseuds/gunyatta
Summary: Torbjörn Lindholm sometimes think he could be too old to to have crushes.Then again, he should be too old to be rejoining a disbanded military organisation so, who was he to question the flutter in his heart when the newest Overwatch recruit, Hanzo Shimada begins acting strangely around him?





	strike at the core

Torbjörn heaved a sigh of relief as the combat simulation ended. The training room had been morphed into a very open combat area, meaning there was little cover for Torbjörn to set up his turret without getting shot to pieces.

Running to new cover had also been taxing, with Reinhardt constantly remarking, “Need a break Old Man?”, while laughing, throwing his hammer around and then charging the simulated combatants. Although Torbjörn was only a few years younger than Reinhardt, he didn’t get to remind his friend of that fact, and the fact that Reinhardt’s legs covered a lot more ground that Torbjörn’s, before his cover was flipped over and he had to dive for shelter.

He'd nearly gotten ‘killed’ by a simulated soldier while he was trying to toss an armour pack to Tracer who was zipping around the map. He’d turned around, knowing he wouldn’t get his shotgun up before the soldier shot him. Then an arrow burrowed into the soldier’s skull and he shattered into motes of hard-light. Torbjörn looked up to one of the few perches available to those of the team who were able to take advantage of them.

The newest recruit Hanzo knelt there, bow and arrow already trained on another soldier that Torbjörn couldn’t see. Torbjörn waved his claw at the sniper in thanks but Hanzo didn’t react. Torbjörn didn’t really expect a wave from the largely quite assassin. So, he turned and went back to work, managing to rack up a good few kills himself, earning some praise from Athena over the coms.

So, as the simulation ended he could feel sweat dripping down his back and arms. The heat of his ‘ammo’ not helping at all. He was stiff, tired and hungry and he understood Winston’s desire to train them harder since Doomfist’s escape from prison, but he still grumbled as he collected pieces of his turrets that dotted the combat zone, hoping to reuse whatever was reusable and probably give whatever wasn’t to Roadhog to use for his gun.

Roadhog had given Torbjörn a limited-edition pachimari when Torbjörn had done that the last time and Torbjörn was interested to ask the massive man more about his collection, as he seemed to have many limited-edition versions.  
Torbjörn then realised he probably stole them and decided he wouldn’t ask about where the former-Junker got them.

Torbjörn scoured for his turrets cores, a large mechanism that was hard to break and hard to make. He sighed in frustration, knowing he was two cores short and that he’d probably have to come back to the area later when the training room terrain was back to normal. He would much rather have found them, gone for a shower, had something to eat and been in bed by now. Yet it seemed liked he’d either have to make another loop of the terrain or wait. He watched as the others filed out of the training area, with Roadhog tugging Junkrat along who was having entirely too much fun blowing up the simulated people and cars.

“Damn energetic youngsters.” Not one to ask for help, Torbjörn resigned to one more loop of the area. He was passing a simulated Kofi café when he heard a light scuffling, his hand instinctively clenching the trigger of his gun when he heard the gentle fluttering of fabric and Hanzo landed nimbly in front of him.

“Jesus!” Torbjörn had his gun trained on Hanzo before he recognised the bowman and lowered it, putting his claw to his chest.

“Ya nearly gave me a heart attack! Then Angela would finally have the last laugh.” He heaved a sigh, his frustrations largely released and his tiredness taking over.

It was a second before he realised Hanzo was moving toward him. He quirked an eyebrow and almost took a step back before Hanzo stopped close to him and opened his hands, proffering the two turret cores there to Torbjörn.

Torbjörn’s brain was just registering the situation as Hanzo said, “The heavy artillery threw some of your turret mechanisms up onto the roof”. Torbjörn nodded, his brain still a little behind, not used to being spoken to by the newest member who had so far been largely silent, rather liked working alone and who, when he did speak, was mostly butting heads with people. His pessimistic and sombre nature grating Mccree the most as he tried his best to counteract Hanzo’s mood.

Torbjörn understood Hanzo’s situation. Not entirely, or in the same context but he also knew what it felt like to have a lot of blood on your hands. Torbjörn at least had Reinhardt and his ex-wives also were there for him, even now.

But Hanzo seemed isolated. Even though Genji had reached out to him and had gotten Hanzo to at least use Overwatch to hide from the Talon agents’ recruitment, Hanzo kept Genji at arm’s length and seemed unable to accept that this was the same Genji he had called brother…and the brother he had slain.

Torbjörn understood Hanzo’s desire to be a lone wolf and gave him space, but made sure to always invite him to non-combat-related activities. Even though Hanzo always declined.

He couldn’t recall the assassin ever approaching him in the time he’d been at Gibraltar and that was probably why he was still staring up at the man, sweating still dripping off him and probably looking like a beached fish.  
Hanzo’s brows began knitting together on his forehead in obvious discomfort at the prolonged silence and Torbjörn quickly came back to his body, putting his gun away and taking the cores from Hanzo’s calloused palm swiftly.  
“Eh, thank you…Do you want-”, his invitation to fix the small tears in Hanzo’s prosthetics went unfinished as the sniper walked past him, his ribbons fluttering softly behind him as he went.

“-to walk away from someone talking to ya?”, Torbjörn finished grumpily, sagging as his sweat cooled uncomfortably and his muscles began aching. He looked from the cores and the retreating figure of the bowman of few words and few manners before pocketing them and turning his attention to the fantasy of the warm shower and hot meal he was about to enjoy.

Athena re-ran the tapes of the combat simulation, noting everyone’s failings and successes, compiling the data for Winston to review later. She watched the combat end and Hanzo move to leave, his small, grainy figure stopping when seeing Torbjörn searching the debris for his cores, before beginning to search the upper ledges for Torbjörn’s tech as well. She registered the information from the interaction and cut those few minutes from the film just as Satya entered her hub to speak with her again, a thrill registering in her databanks at the anticipation of their talks.

\-------------

The next morning Torbjörn was comfortably achy. Not so much that he was grumbling and grouching around the headquarters, but enough that he felt reminded of what they had gathered to do. And that he could still keep up in combat, bringing up his kill count to Reinhardt at breakfast who replied by talking about how low the count was, before D.Va ratted Reinhardt out by saying, “But Reinhardt, you got less then him.” The boost to Torbjörn’s ego, coupled with Reinhardt’s incredulous stuttering had left Torbjörn invigorated and fresh.

He decided to stroll along the cliffside of the compound as the sun rose, the breeze feeling clear and salty as he made his way to his small, sheltered vegetable garden. Winston had given them today to recover from training and for him to review their last simulation.

Torbjörn planned on checking the garden, fixing up some turrets and then probably joining in whatever chaotic social event Reinhardt, D.Va and Lucio had cooked up.  
On his way towards the garden he spotted Junkrat and Roadhog doing laps on their bike, Junkrat hanging out of sidecar and laughing as he fixed something on the bike. Torbjörn sighed and guessed they thought doing repairs while driving would show the results of their tinkering better.

But as they sped past and he heard Junkrat telling Roadhog to speed up, he realised they were probably just going stir crazy after going from open roads to what to them must be unlawful confinement. Torbjörn hoped they didn’t go out and steal another ice cream truck, or went looking for a bigger mark and so he informed Athena on the coms that the Junkers might need a hamster wheel or something. Athena matched his humour by saying that they’d have to find one big enough for them both, otherwise Junkrat would end up rolling himself off the cliff for fun.

Torbjörn chuckled as he rounded the storage shed by the garden, cutting himself short as he saw Hanzo knelt there, meditating. He paused, lifting his foot to quietly turn around and leave Hanzo to his meditation when he heard said sniper’s voice call out to him, “You needn’t leave. I am almost done; your gardening won’t disturb me.”

Torbjörn still considered leaving but the awkwardness of that situation and his desire to check on the tomatoes and lettuce sprouts won out and he nodded to Hanzo who had turned his gaze on the smaller man. Torbjörn passed behind him saw a little tension in Hanzo’s shoulders dissipate, chalking it up to Torbjörn’s intrusion on his meditation.

The tools and water spigots were situated near the small garden and he rolled up his sleeves and set to work, the calming labour easing his worry about having disturbing Hanzo. He spent a good hour on maintaining and weeding the plant beds, his hands covered in fresh soil and a little sweat on his brow. The plaits of his beard thrown over his shoulders and tucked into the collar of his shirt to keep them out of the way. He had kept his back to Hanzo at first, hearing some shuffling from the other man.

Once Torbjörn had settled into a routine he’d forgotten about Hanzo, losing himself in the work until he was wiping his hands off on his trousers and then clapped them together too loudly. He suddenly remembered not wanting to disturb the other man, turning his head sharply to see Hanzo hadn’t even flinched. He briefly wondered if Genji’s master, the omnic, had given Hanzo some tips on deep meditation while he checked his watch.  
It was close to time for lunch and while Hanzo usually went to the canteen at off-hours to avoid the main group, he still thought he should inform him.

Torbjörn cleared up his tools and cleaned his hands as much as he could before he went over to the still figure. He reached out and gently touched Hanzo’s shoulder and was about to apologise and inform him of the time when he realised Hanzo was asleep. The man had fallen asleep kneeling, his silk ribbons fluttering softly and brushing against Torbjörn’s arm before his dark eyelashes fluttered and he opened his eyes slowly then suddenly when he saw the blonde Swede whose hand was still settled on his shoulder.

“Eh…it’s time for lunch”, Torbjörn offered ineloquently, his face heating up as he moved his hand away. Hanzo looked around then down to his wrist, keeping his face turned from Torbjörn as he got up stiffly. He grunted out a ‘Thank you’ before hurriedly making his way back to the main building.

Torbjörn was embarrassed about having woken the man up and only pondered how nice Hanzo’s eyelashes were for a whole 30 seconds before he pulled his beard out of his collar, brushing it out as his face heated up then just standing there as he realised he had just brushed dirt into is beard.

He hit his forehead with the palm of his hand while he scrunched his eyes shut and then he made his towards the building, following Hanzo’s path but not seeing the taller man.  
He passed by the former Junkers again. This time they were parked close to the cliffs edge, Junkrat yelling at Roadhog over the smoking engine. Roadhog wasn’t responding but Junkrat, as always, seemed to decipher what the big man was saying through head-tilts and varying grunts and rumbles, and was responding as if the Enforcer was blaming him with a full, booming rant.  
Torbjörn decided not to get involved, but as he passed he heard a shrill, “Oi mate!” and he regretfully stopped and turned, covered in dirt and sweat and a little embarrassed from his earlier interaction with Hanzo and not in the mood to diffuse a fight between the two very tall men.

“I’ll help ya with yer engine after lunch Jamieson,” he said tiredly.

“What? Oh! Nah, well actually, thanks yeah mate, I’ll take you up on that,” the blonde Junker exclaiming as he half-climbed over Roadhog to speak more directly to Torbjörn, with Roadhog not seeming to make much protest other than lifting Junkrat up by his harness and dropping him on his ass on the ground in front of Torbjörn.

“What you do that for ya heifer!” Junkrat stood up, towering over Torbjörn who was about to set back on his path to a shower and food. Then Junkrat turned back to him, his hunched form rattling with tremors as he asked, “What’d ya do to Robin Hood?”.  
Torbjörn took a second to decipher that Junkrat was talking about Hanzo and opened his mouth, not sure what he was going to say when Junkrat interrupted, “I mean, there’s lots of guys here I’d love to start a fight with,” Roadhog grunted in affirmation behind him, “but I’d never pick a fight with someone who could put a stick through my skull while I’m taking a piss”.

Torbjörn ignored Junkrat’s crudeness and reminded himself to make sure Junkrat was busy elsewhere when his kids came to visit, unless he wanted eight kids saying ‘Fuck!’ by the end of said visit. His eyebrows then met in the middle of his brow as he tried to think on what Junkrat said. Hanzo hadn’t been mad about Torbjörn waking him up, had he?

Junkrat continued on as if Torbjörn had spoken, (reading a pig mask for cues must make reading Torbjörn’s face seem like child’s play), “He was all red-faced and muttering to himself, might want to get King Kong to take his bow away till you’ve had yer fisticuffs, huh?” Junkrat then pat Torbjörn on his shoulder and scrambled back over Roadhog as he started talking about how he might know how to fix the engine, or might end up exploding it.

Torbjörn, still puzzled, said, “Thanks for the advice” before nodding and heading back to the main building, extremely confused and thinking about maybe having food then finding Hanzo and apologising to him.

\-------------

Already making his way back into the Gibraltar complex, Hanzo finally let out the breath he was holding. He set off toward his room, planning to come back to the canteen when he was sure Torbjörn wouldn’t be there.

Hanzo touched his face, almost as if he could feel the heat in his cheeks, he knew he’d been blushing on the walk over, with how the tall Australian had looked at him.

How embarrassing, Hanzo thought, to be 38 and acting so childish. He brushed some loose greying hairs behind his ear as he slowed, nearing his quarters. He’d practically ran away from Torbjörn.

After the man had started work on the garden Hanzo had guessed that he wouldn’t be able to focus on meditating at all, but the sounds of Torbjörn working were soothing and he’d fallen asleep. To be woken up like a child and stare dumbly at Torbjörn had been all too embarrassing.

There was nothing worse than looking like a fool in front of the man you have a crush on.

**Author's Note:**

> Edit: Sorry if anyone has been waiting for a follow-up chapter but I can't really figure a follow-up to this chapter so this'll be a one-shot, unfortunately.


End file.
